95 YEARS

Mom on her 21st birthday
August 11, 1940

Ninety-five years ago, on August 11, 1919, a fourth daughter arrived at the Haaland homestead south of Climax.  She was named Hulda Svanhild and was welcomed by her three older sisters - Camilla, Marie and Helma.  She also had three older brothers - Morris, John and Herb.  Two years later she became an older sister to Ruth.  

These two younger sisters became very close. When Hulda started school she came home and taught her little sister what she had learned.  She was a good teacher as when Ruth started school she "skipped" grade one and went right to grade two!

The Haalands had no other family in Canada.  Hans and Bertha had emigrated to the US from Norway and spent two years at Fingal, ND where Bertha's sister Inga Branden and her family lived.  The promise of free land drew them west and in April of 1914 they moved to their homestead south-west of Climax, SK.  My Grandpa Haaland once commented, "They said it was free land, but it cost a lot".

Mom's schooling took place at Lone Trail, a good two mile walk over the prairie.  When she was about ten years old, their young teacher from the city of Regina was so lonesome that she asked the Haalands if Hulda could stay at the teacherage with her during the week.  Mom talked about being lonesome when the rest of the kids went home after school and she was left behind. But she stuck it out and this teacher was very good to her with special gifts of an Eatons beauty doll and a camera that Mom treasured. Sandra has the doll in her "toy room" (actually a bedroom) along with many other family keepsakes from days gone by.

When her school days were over, Mom went to work at Heggestad's grocery store in Frontier and boarded at the Ole Heggestad home.  Their children, Agnes, Norman and Omar became very special to her over those years.  Some of Mom's wages were sent to her sister Ruth who was by then a student at SLBI, Outlook. 

The above picture was taken at Tate Lake, close to Sandra and Merle's farm.  Mom wasn't feeling well, but went to the "swimming hole" on her birthday anyway.  She ended up with a very high fever that caused her beautiful dark hair to fall out and never grow back.  That must have been so devastating for her as she had to wear wigs for the rest of her life and they weren't as readily available as they are today.

Mom married Milford Clayton Erickson of Frontier in 1941.  Their first home was in the "cook car" on the Erickson farm.  That winter they lived in Orkney where Dad worked in a hardware store.  I was born in Bracken that February and we moved to the Uglene farm in the spring.  Dad worked at the elevator in Loomis as well as at the Erickson farm.  

World War II was on and farmers were encouraged to take jobs off the farm in the winter to help in the labor shortage. Dad and Uncle Herb (Mom's brother) went to BC and worked in a copper mine at
Britannia Beach.  Mom and I stayed with Dad's parents in Frontier.  Those were lonesome days for Mom and Dad, being separated for about four months. (no phone calls or Facetime visits in those days!) They wrote daily letters to each other.  I have all those letters that they saved so have a daily update on my progress, including my first birthday!  (Mom had beautiful handwriting, thanks in part to her favourite teacher, Mrs. Jolly from England.)

In the summer of 1943 Dad was able to purchase the Anderson farm three miles east and two miles south of Frontier.  That is where I spent the rest of my childhood, along with siblings Mervin, Alan and Sandra.  I was ten years old and Mom was expecting a baby in October when she came down with polio in July of 1952.  She spent six weeks in hospital in Regina, three of those in isolation.  A special nurse, Agnes Heggestad, came to see her in spite of isolation orders. 

 When Mom came home she was unable to walk as the polio had left her with weak muscles and no control of one leg. Sandra arrived at Frontier hospital right on the due date of October 5 and I rejoiced to have a sister.  We had a great hired girl, Inez Lindstrom from Divide.  She was just 18 but could bake bread and other goodies as well as cook, clean, wash and iron for our family of six.  Mom was able to take care of the baby and Inez was happy about that!

In 1953-54 our family spent several months in Salem, Oregon where Mom was able to take massage treatments from her sister-in-law, Edna.  She gained muscle and strength in her legs and was able to walk with help.  She fell twice and broke her leg so was warned that it might not heal if broken again.  The rest of her life was spent in a wheel chair from the age of 33 years.  She never complained.  She had seen a lady in the hospital whose arms were turning to stone from some illness and was always thankful that it was her legs, not her arms that were affected by the polio. 

Our matching shirts for a camping trip, all sewn by Mom

 She did more from her wheelchair than many woman with two good legs accomplish - baked bread and other goodies, was a perfectionist at sewing and did sewing for others as well, crocheted, did Norsk needlework and even became a teacher when she taught Norwegian lessons through community college.  She even make a longed for trip to Norway in 1969!  None of this would have been possible without Dad's help.  He did all the vacuuming, cleaning windows and other hard to reach areas, drove her to classes, did all the grocery shopping and did all this with patience and no complaining. With Mom's instructions he learned to garden as she had always done that.  Weeds didn't stand a chance when he was nearby!

A batch of bread fresh from the oven!

  They retired to Saskatoon in the fall of 1976 and led a busy life in the city.  Mom even became the Ambassador of the Norwegian Society in Saskatoon's first Folk Fest!  They are celebrating the 35th anniversary of Folk Fest this month so it would have been fun to be there.  I remember going up with the four kids one year and playing the accordion as people came in to the Norsk pavilion.  Todd slept on his blanket under a table!

One year for Christmas Mom cross-stitched burlap stockings for each of her twelve grandchildren!  Each one had the child's name, God Jul and a design in the middle.  (I thought I did well to get three done one year!) She rarely sat down without some stitching in hand and we have many special keepsakes because of that.

Mom wasn't one for expressing a lot of emotion and I guess that's kind of "the Norwegian way" or at least "the Haaland way".  We grew up without a lot of hugs, kisses or "I love yous" but by their caring actions and concern we knew we were loved. (I am learning to share my feelings in words, but it's hard to change those ways!)

Mom suffered a massive heart attack on Sept. 15, 1983 and passed away on Nov. 4 of 1984 at the age of 65.  She received one old age pension cheque and spent the last three months of her life in a nursing home, along with Dad.  She was 12 years younger than Dad so we never expected that Dad would outlive her, but he did and died on Sept 2, 1987 at the age of 80. 

So my thoughts are with my Mom today, almost thirty years since her passing and with my dear husband Howard who shared the same birthday.  Today he would have been 79 so he was born on my mother's 16th birthday. I don't think we ever had a picture of the two of them together on their birthday.  Maybe that's because August 11 falls on a busy time on the farm - harvest and we didn't travel far from home that month!  I will feature him next year on Aug.11 when he would have been eighty.

Yesterday was our annual Sunday service at Salem.  I picked yellow flowers from our yard to put on the altar.  After the service we placed them on Howard's grave just east of the church.  We came home and had angel food cake with whipped cream and peaches.  Now they are both in the company of angels for their birthday.

When I told Todd how the text and sermon at Salem matched the picture on the altar, he shared with me that there is also a picture based on that text in the house they are renting! He emailed it so I will share it with you in closing.  Good-night.

The picture at Todd's in Førde, Norway

The altar with picture at Salem Lutheran Church